The Lottery
by Censelessly
Summary: Tessa Gray is a poor working girl who lives with her aunt and her cousin. Her entire life, and her view of the world, changes when she wins the Lottery, and is whisked off to Idris. In the new world of demons and magic that she never knew existed, Tessa begins to realize that some games of chance are anything but random.
1. chapter 1

I put the finishing touches on my name card with a flourish. _If I had to do this, I might as well make an effort_ , I thought. Although some of the lines were crooked and some of the curves were lopsided, as art had never been my strong suit, it still reflected that I had tried. The words 'Tessa Gray' shone back at me, black against the outline of color and design. I sighed. It was a shame that it would never be seen by anyone again after it had gone into the box. _Unless I was chosen_. The traitorous thought flitted across my mind before I could shove it down. While my life here wasn't all that it used to be, it was surely better than the life of those who 'won' the Lottery.

Standing up from the surface I had been sitting at, a small desk in the corner of my room, I made my way as quietly as I could to the door. Slowly, I opened the door a tiny crack. The acrid scent of cigarette smoke burned my nostrils, coming from Nate's room down the hall. Since the door was closed, I assumed that my cousin was still under the delusion that his mother didn't know what he did in his room all day. Hopefully this would mean that I would be able to get out of the house without him bothering me.

I moved down the hall as quickly as I could, only slowing when I reached the kitchen. My aunt was sitting at the dining table, looking through yesterday's mail. She looked up as I came in.

"And where are you off to so quickly?" Her voice was chilling, and sent cold fingers dancing down my spine.

I showed her my finished name card. "I have to drop this off."

She sniffed. "Maybe you should be chosen. Less of a waste of my money that way." Although she said it in a near whisper, I was sure she wanted me to overhear. Of course, it was no secret that I probably made more money than her, and that she couldn't afford to throw me on the streets. However, it was also no secret that she despised taking care of me, and had only agreed to because I was the daughter of her dear, dead sister.

Although she might not think she could get rid of me just yet, there was not telling what she might do in a fit of rage. At her statement I only nodded demurely and walked out our front door into the corridor beyond.

Away from the tension of my home, I noticed how quiet the building seemed. Everyone was most likely out or dressing up for the Lottery. Since today was a free day for everyone, nobody was at work. Those who saw the Lottery as a day of celebration would go all-out in their appearances. However, while I appreciated the respite from work, I saw it as just another way for the privileged government to keep control of the general population.

As I walked down the hallway, the usual slime that coated it threatened to suck off my well-worn shoes. Since the elevator was hardly ever working, I headed directly for the stairs. Taking care not to touch the handrails, I walked briskly down the six floors to the lobby. The man at the desk leered at me. "I hope you don't get chosen, sweetheart. I sure would miss your company." Although his words seemed kind, his tone was anything but.

The arm that suddenly appeared around my shoulder surprised me, and I almost jumped out of my skin. The laugh that tickled my ear almost gave me a heart attack. "I'm afraid that even if she isn't chosen, she's spoken for."

The man at the desk looked me over once more, his eyes seeming to invade every inch of me, before turning away. "Shame," was his only reply.

The stranger held me tighter to him, as if possessively, before turning and walking us through the front door. I followed eagerly, grateful for the opportunity to get away from the man who had tormented me ever since I was old enough to know exactly what he wanted from me.

As soon as the door had shut behind us, I turned to the man, stepping out of his grip. I studied my rescuer for a moment. He was about me age, and tall and handsome, in a dark sort of way. He had messy black hair that dipped over his eyes, and deep blue eyes that danced with mirth, as if he was perpetually in the moment between a joke and a punchline at your expense. It was those eyes that told me it wasn't a good idea to stay around.

"Thank you," I said, before turning away and walking briskly down the street. Although I was tall for a girl, and as such my legs were long, he was taller still. He caught up to me easily.

"So tell me, Tessa, what is a girl such as yourself doing in a place such as that," he asked in a conspirators voice, the smirk on his face seemingly designed to irritate anyone unlucky enough to gaze upon it.

I looked at him sharply. "How do you know my name?"

He just pointed to my name card. Miffed and blushing slightly over missing the obvious explanation, I shoot back at him, "I happen to live there. And what about you? Do you typically pretend to be the lover of any girl you happen to come across?"

The man chuckled and raised his eyebrows at me suggestively. "Oh, I don't pretend." At that, I turn a darker shade of crimson. "However, the reason that I was in that particular hovel- excuse me, _apartment building_ \- was simply because I mistook it for an opium den."

The red shading my face now was partially from anger. _How dare he insult my home_? "I would have thought that you would have mistaken it for a tattoo parlor, what with all the strange symbols you have already," I shot back.

He looked slightly surprised at this comment, but his face quickly settled back into a knowing smirk. I walked faster, wishing that there was a crowd around that I could disappear into and get away from this annoying boy. The object of my ire stopped suddenly. "I do think that I'll be seeing you again very soon, Tessa," he said cryptically. When I looked back, he was already gone. It was only then that I realized that he hadn't told me his name.

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

The line that I had to wait in was so long, it took me almost three hours to even get near the front. Since there was only one Lottery machine in our province, everyone who participated was in the same line. That meant that every 18 year old in a 20-mile radius was legally required to wait in that line.

The Lottery had been around for as long as anyone could remember. Every year, everybody who had reached 18 years of age that year made a card with their name on it and put it into a Lottery machine. Most of them were never seen again, and nobody seemed to know where they went. However, every once in a while, there would be that one unlucky child. Their card wouldn't stay in the machine. Sometimes the card would have a hole punched through it, which was why it was known more casually to people as a Puncher. If a card was returned, then the one who had put it in the Puncher was said to have won the Lottery. The winner was taken away from their family and their life, and was never heard from again.

I moved forwards as I watched the people in front of me put their name cards into the Puncher. After having so much paper shoved into it, I was surprised it wasn't full. As they moved away, leaving their cards behind, it was finally my turn.

Although most of those who had gone before me had been nervous, holding their breath as their card went in and releasing the air in a sigh as it didn't come out, I was calm. Considering the fact that only about one person every few years was chosen from our area, and that there were thousands who participated every year, I knew that the odds of being chosen were dismal at best. So when my card went into the machine, I considered myself completely safe.

The card entered the slot in the side. I prepared myself to walk away and place the whole experience out of my mind, resigning myself to living with my aunt forever. The card came back out. In the center, as if a pair of eyes staring back at me, were two holes.

I had not only beaten the odds, I had obliterated them. And now, I could quite possibly die from it.

 **Hello reader. So this is my first fanfic, and although I really do love everything about what I'm writing, the mean reason I'm doing this is to improve. So please, if you see anything that I could improve on or that would make the story better, please review. (Note: This part is a little slow but that's partly because I'm setting everything up.)**

 **Thanks, Censelessly.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So sorry about taking so long to post the next part! My life has been super busy lately, and I've been sitting on a half-finished chapter for a while now.**

 **SilverCarstairs: Thank you for reviewing at one am and inspiring me to get off my lazy butt and finish the chapter.**

After I had been chosen, I had been taken to a bare room in the middle of city hall. There had been only one guard. I doubted that they thought I was worth the effort of more. Even if I hadn't been so shell-shocked, I doubted that they would have been wrong.

The first thing that I had noticed about the room upon being placed in it was that it was cold. The short uniform I had on, the only outfit that my aunt had provided me, did nothing to protect me from the temperature. Outside, where the weather had been warm and pleasant, I hadn't minded. However, the room that I waited in had obviously been a freezer in another life.

As the door opened, I fancifully hoped that I might be taken out of the room. Instead, my aunt and cousin entered the room. Upon seeing the expressions on their faces, my heart leapt into my throat.

The guard who let them in was different than the guard who had taken me to the room. My eyes fell upon him, devouring every detail the way I would devour words on a page whenever I was fortunate enough to find a book.

He was silver. That was the only way to describe him. His hair fell in sterling sheaths across his head. His eyes, like liquid starlight, stared into mine with a fervid kindness that stood alongside a profound sadness.

The few seconds that it took me to study the guard was all it took for my aunt to fly across the room to stand in front of me. "How could you do this to us?" she shrieked. Her piercing voice, combined with the slap she sent across my cheek, sent my head ringing.

That certainly broke the strange trance that I had fallen under. The guard started, rushing forwards to restrain my aunt before she could strike me again. "I'm afraid you'll have to leave now, ma'am," he told her, holding her arms to her sides. She struggled and cursed at both him and me, but he managed to get both her and himself out the door before slamming it shut with his foot. He was so preoccupied with my aunt that he seemed to have forgotten about my cousin. The same cousin who, I imagined, had gotten away with murder more than once.

Nate smiled, a feral smile that spoke of bitterness and pain to come. That smile had me scared even before he crossed the room. I was stiff with fear even before he bent down to whisper into my ear. However, it was the three words that he spoke that left me white-faced and trembling as he walked leisurely over to stand by the door. Even after the nameless guard had returned and escorted a smirking Nate out to join his vile mother, I could still hear his words echoing in my mind.

"I'm going too."

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

When the guard finally returned to the room I was in, it was to retrieve me. By that time, I had stopped shaking, but my cheeks were still pale. As I got up, I dug my nails, chipped and uneven from being broken so many times, into the hard flesh of my palms to keep my legs from collapsing under me. As he led me out of the frigid room and into the warmer air of the hallway, I barely noticed. I subconsciously placed one foot in front of the other while my thoughts whirled and collided inside my head, tied together only by the common theme of Nate's words.

 _How could he be going? Why would he even_ want _to be going with me?_ I had thought that I might finally escape from my family, even if it might end in my demise. A new thought occurred to me then. _If Nate was going, didn't that mean that there was somewhere to be going to?_ If there was one thing I could count on, it was that Nate was a coward. If he was going, then I was definitely not going to die.

Unintentionally and unknowingly, Nate had given me a small spark of hope. The knowledge that I was most definitely being taken somewhere, and I was not just going to be killed. If I was being taken somewhere, then it was only a matter of time before I would be able to escape. I would run away, and start again somewhere new. I could feel the color return to my flesh at this thought.

The guard, who had been walking silently in front of me, stopped suddenly. Lost in my thoughts, I ran into his back before stumbling away. He turned around and caught me before I could fall. Flinching, I waited for a strike, or harsh words. He only looked at me searchingly for a few moments before righting himself, leaving me as grateful as I was confused.

Gazing cautiously beyond the guard, I spotted the reason that we had stopped. We were in front of the entrance to the building, which I vaguely recognized from coming in. As the door opened, natural light flooded in, blinding me and forcing me to squint my eyes. My eyes adjusted quickly, though. Soon enough, I'm able to make out the large black car parked on our side of the sidewalk. I had only read about cars in books, and finally seeing one had me so amazed that I almost noticed the most disturbing thing. Just in front of it, leaning against the side door, is the dark-haired man from earlier.

I blinked once to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. He doesn't disappear. "What are you doing here?" I ask, bewilderment spread clear across my face.

"Hello to you too, Tessa. Welcoming as always. Wonderful to see you again, although I can't say it's much of a surprise. Ah, I see you've met dear Jem already, too!" He stepped forwards, each footfall as languid as a cat's. He had his arms spread wide, as if announcing to the world that it had been temporarily blessed with his presence.

The man spoke so fluidly, the sentences leaking into each other, that it was a struggle to keep up. It was all I could do to latch onto his last sentence. "Jem?" I asked dumbly.

His smirk only became wider. "So he didn't tell you his name? How improper. I expected more from you, James." He gazed dramatically towards the silver-haired guard, feigning insult. The guard only rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Well it isn't as if you've told me your name, either," I pointed out, catching my balance in the conversation.

The light in his eyes flared as the skin around them crinkled, and he dropped his arms to his sides. "Indeed. How rude of me. You deserve to know whose presence you have been blessed with not once, but twice." I only looked at him as he spoke. He crossed his right hand over his heart, before dipping into a sweeping bow. He leaned so low that his tossed black locks hovered just above the ground. Mocking me.

"I am known as William Herondale, the wonderful and beautiful." Straightening, William turned his deep blue eyes into my gray ones. A mask of humor covered them, but deep within I could sense the hint of something raw stewing. _And dangerous_ , I added to myself.

"Or just Will," the silver-haired guard, Jem, interceded. Will looked towards him with a sort of surprised delight spread across his face.

"So he does speak!" Will exclaimed, his whole demeanor changing in an instant. "I'd almost thought you'd lost your tongue."

The corners of Jem's mouth tilted slightly upwards. "I only thought it rude to interrupt."

As Jem spoke, the smile on Will's face seemed to become more genuine. Watching the effect they had on each other, I could tell that they were important to each other.

Will opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, before seeming to again notice the car behind him. "You're never interrupting," was all he said before turning around. He opened up a door for Jem and I. "Shall we?" he asked. Jem waited for me to enter before climbing in next to me. Once we were settled, Will entered, perching on the edge of the seat across from me. He threw me a wolfish smile.

I watched him closely for as long as I could, before the rocking motion of the unfamiliar vehicle lulled me into a fitful slumber.


End file.
